The Charge

"Hey, you crazy beatniks…there's gonna be a
HEIIIiiiiIIIST!!!!!!"—Bobby Bitman, from a musical number in
"Maudlin's Eleven"

Opening Statement

The third nine-episode "cycle" of SCTV's run on NBC was, in
hindsight, probably the high-water mark for the show. This was the last time the
original cast would be together on the show, and the addition (for the last
three episodes) of new cast member Martin Short provided a needed boost of
energy and creativity.

But cracks had appeared in the show's foundation—cracks that were
already starting to break down television's best sketch comedy show. Despite
these problems, the show still managed to live up to its past excellence, thanks
primarily to the incredible talent of its cast and writers. Yes, it was still a
continuing struggle to fill 90 minutes of airtime, and the show's taste for
extremely long sketches was on full display, but there's a lot to love here in
Shout! Factory's third volume of SCTV. And—wonder of
wonders—the picture quality is vastly improved over the past two
volumes!

Facts of the Case

SCTV is still on the air, and still sports the same assortment of
behind-the-scenes incompetents and failed celebrities that it has in the past.
The slightly shady Guy Caballero (Joe Flaherty, Freaks and Geeks) still
owns the network, and the disturbingly horny Edith Prickley (Andrea Martin, My Big Fat Greek Wedding) is
still the program director. Sammy Maudlin (Flaherty) and William B. Williams
(John Candy, Stripes) still hold down the late-night talk show fort with
their obsequious yakker. Backwater yokels Bob (Rick Moranis, Honey, I Shrunk
the Kids) and Doug (Dave Thomas, Grace Under Fire) McKenzie still
have their two-minute "Great White North" show.

New this "season" on SCTV is its first soap opera,
"The Days of the Week." Also, SCTV's newscasters, Floyd
Robertson (Flaherty) and Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy, A Mighty Wind) now host "Nightline
Melonville," a hard-hitting, in-depth news show.

The Evidence

The marriage of NBC and SCTV was always somewhat of a rocky one. NBC
had, of course, pioneered the late-night sketch comedy format via its hit
Saturday Night Live. Hence, they felt that they had a pretty good idea
about how to run a sketch comedy show. SCTV, on the other hand, was
almost the equivalent of a family-run business. The core cast—Candy,
Flaherty, Thomas, O'Hara, Martin, and Levy—and many of the writers had
been together since the show's inception in 1976. The show's unique format
relied on the presence of repeating characters, all of whom had deep backstories
that had been developed over years of programming. SCTV did things the
SCTV way, and that was that.

When NBC bought in to SCTV—mainly as a hedge against a complete
collapse of Saturday Night Live after Lorne Michaels' departure in
1980—it naturally assumed that it could dictate the show's content and
production and mold it into a new SNL. No fewer than five producers found
out the hard way that no such thing was going to happen. NBC would send them up
to Edmonton or Toronto, whereupon they'd find a cast that either (a) completely
ignored them or (b) were openly hostile to any interference. Inevitably, they'd
quit in frustration, since they were literally wasting their time.

When production began on the third nine-show NBC cycle of SCTV in the
spring of 1982, it was Don Novello's turn to be sacrificed on its altar.
Novello, a Saturday Night Live writer best known for his character Father
Guido Sarducci, was heading for a show in flux. Thanks partially to cast
jealousy over the titanic success of the Bob and Doug McKenzie characters, Dave
Thomas had stepped down as the head writer for the show, a role he had held
since the beginning of the NBC era. Thomas and Rick Moranis were fielding offers
from Hollywood to bring Bob and Doug to the big screen. (They would indeed leave
the show after this cycle to produce and star in the feature film Strange Brew.) SNL, still soldiering
on under new producer Dick Ebersol, was always trying to raid the cast for
talent. (John Candy was high on their list.) And production of the show had
moved from remote Edmonton back to cosmopolitan Toronto, providing (unlike
Edmonton) a wealth of non-SCTV distractions for the cast and crew.

Novello, still recovering from the death of his good friend John Belushi,
showed up in Toronto to co-produce the show and serve as head writer—and
was almost completely ignored. He quit at the end of the nine-show run.
(Apparently there were no hard feelings, though, since he returned to co-produce
the Cinemax version of the show in 1983.) No, the "suggestions" from
NBC (such as "do more pot jokes") would be falling on deaf ears,
despite the cachet of the messenger.

And so SCTV rolled on pretty much as it had in the past, with two
major exceptions: the "runners" (episode-long story arcs played out in
multiple segments) became the full focus of the show (the "broadcast
day" format was essentially tossed out the window), and the sketches became
incredibly long. More than a few sketches in this cycle run close to 15
minutes—an astounding amount of time in a show that has only 64 total
minutes of material, and something that SNL could never think of pulling
off.

Toward the end of this run, a fresh face appeared: Martin Short, the younger
brother of writer Mike Short. Short was another Second City stage veteran who
brought a broad range of stage-honed characters to SCTV. He was also
insurance in case Thomas and Moranis left the show. But most importantly, Short
brought a jolt of energy to the cast and writers just when it was needed the
most.

Some of the best moments of SCTV are contained in these nine
episodes, presented almost intact by this set. Cycle Three was composed
of the following episodes:

Disc One

• Episode 97: "The Great White North Palace" Bob
and Doug McKenzie are hits with the kids, and SCTV's brain trust are
falling all over each other to exploit them. Guy Caballero eventually gives the
boys their own prime-time spectacular, complete with guest appearances by Morgan
Fairchild (O'Hara), Joyce DeWitt (Martin), and Tony Bennett (Tony Bennett). The
show is a disaster.

Musical guest: Tony Bennett performs "I Wish I Were In Love Again"
and "The Best Is Yet To Come."

• Episode 98: "Pre-Teen World Telethon" Oh, what
a show! The "Pre-Teen World" kids host a telethon to raise funds for
their show, whose funding has been cut by the government. Also features the epic
parody "Maudlin's Eleven," and "The Adventures of Shake &
Bake," which reveals the secret lives of William Shakespeare (Thomas) and
Francis Bacon (Moranis).

Musical guest: "The Recess Monkeys" (Moranis, Levy, and Candy)
performing "My Girl" (a hit for the Canadian band Chilliwack in 1982)
in character. Funny, yet not bad!

Key sketches: "Nightline Melonville: Kidnapping," "Prickley
Heat."

A commentary track by Joe and Paul Flaherty and Dick Blasucci is included
for this episode. Just a hint for the Shout! folks: Joe hasn't seen these
episodes in ages. Show him the episodes first, then show them to him
again when you do the commentary track. Otherwise, he's just laughing at
everything.

Disc Two

• Episode 99: "The People's Golden Global Choice
Awards" Guy Caballero and "National Midnight Star"
publisher Rawl Withers (Levy) combine forces to present the newest awards show
on the scene. They also rig it so that every award is won by an SCTV show. It's
up to Bob Hope (Thomas) to rat out the schemers to the FBI.

Musical guest: Third World performs "Try Jah Love."

Key sketches: "The Merv Griffin Show: The Special Edition"
(ooooh…a brilliant parody of Spielberg's Special Edition of Close Encounters of the Third
Kind…ooooh!), "Tex & Edna Boil: Chuckie" (Tex finally
snaps!).

• Episode 100: "3-D Stake From the Heart" David
Wolper Presents: An inside look at the making of "3-D Stake From the
Heart," Francis Ford Coppola's follow-up to his flop One From the Heart, starring the much
more affordable Dr. Tongue (Candy) and Woody Tobias, Jr. (Levy). Hosted by Count
Floyd (Flaherty). But the main runners in this show are the introduction of
"The Days of the Week," SCTV's new soap opera, and a series of
commercials detailing poor Edna Boil's (Martin) quest to replace the
now-departed Tex (Thomas).

Musical guest: None.

Key sketches: "Dr. X," "The Irv Goldfarb Show,"
"Just For Fun."

Disc Three

• Episode 101: "Pet Peeves / The Happy Wanderers"
Although the show lacks a true "runner"—the "Pet Peeves of
the Stars" segments are just brief opportunities for the cast members to do
their killer celebrity impressions—this show does feature the debut of two
of the most beloved characters from SCTV's history: Yosh (Candy) and Stan
(Levy) Schmenge, the proud Leutonian bandleaders of the Happy Wanderers. Yosh
and Stan welcome former Happy Wanderer Linsk Minyk (Moranis) back to the show,
where he performs some of his popular Leutonian rock pieces.

Musical guest: Carl Perkins, performing "Long Way to Go."

Key sketches: "The Days of the Week, Episode 2," "Nightline
Melonville: Milk Slush Fund" (Mayor Tommy Shanks snaps and comes to the
studio to beat up the obviously drunk Floyd Robertson!), "Stand Up and Be
Counted with Bill Needle."

Unfortunately, this episode is the first one that Shout! Factory is
presenting in a substantively incomplete form. What's missing? A brilliant
sketch called "Stairways to Heaven," a K-Tel-like advertisement for an
album featuring 30 musical greats (including SCTV stalwarts 5 Neat Guys)
covering Led Zeppelin's classic "Stairway to Heaven." The reason? As
everyone in the entertainment industry knows, Jimmy Page absolutely refuses to
permit the licensing of "Stairway to Heaven" to anyone for any use. As
a matter of fact, the scene in Wayne's
World inside the music store—which has a sign stating "No Playing
of 'Stairway to Heaven'"—is somewhat of an inside joke relating to
Page's notoriously inflexible stance. Page even refused to allow the song's use
in Almost Famous—and there,
it was his friend Cameron Crowe asking for it. (It took an officially
undisclosed—but unofficially obscene—amount of money for General
Motors to pry the slightly-lesser-known "Rock and Roll" from him for
commercial use.) Since licensing the song would have been prohibitively
expensive, if it were even possible, the sketch was cut out for this DVD
release. A bit on the "Happy Wanderers" show where Linsk Minyk
performed his Leutonian version of "Stairway" was also removed.

• Episode 102: "Chariots of Eggs" Another
absolute classic of an episode, this one features the Sammy Maudlin Show's
discussion of Bobby Bitman's titular amalgam of Chariots of Fire and Personal Best, featuring a substantial (and
surprisingly good) acting performance by musical guests Daryl Hall and John
Oates. The show also includes the spectacularly complex and offbeat "SCTV
News Special Report: NASA Production of Murder in the Cathedral"
(coverage provided by Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley), and
"Revenge," which is possibly the darkest sketch ever aired on the
show.

Musical guests: Hall and Oates, performing "Did It in a Minute" on
the Maudlin show.

• Episode 103: "Battle of the PBS Stars" Arguably
the most ambitious and well-executed episode of the NBC era, this show is
composed, essentially, of only four sketches. First, the title
"runner," a parody of Battle of the Network Stars hosted by
Howard Cosell (Levy) and Dick Cavett (Moranis). The two teams are captained by
Carl Sagan (Thomas) and William F. Buckley (Flaherty). Second, "Wok on the
Wild Side," a detailed parody of early '50s film noir thrillers, featuring
John Candy. Third, "I Was a Teenage Communist," an even more detailed
parody drawing from '50s horror and Red Scare films (also Martin Short's first
substantive sketch on the show). Finally, "Mean Joe Greene Playhouse,"
which features a movie of the week ("The Big Dude and the Kid") based
upon Greene's commercials for Big Dude TV Dinners. Starring the real
"Mean" Joe Greene and Rocky Bleier. (This is a rather esoteric
parody—Greene had starred in a made-for-TV movie, The Steeler and the
Pittsburgh Kid, based on his legendary commercial for Coca-Cola; that's
what's being spoofed here.)

Musical guest: Dave Edmunds, performing "From Small Things, Big Things
Come." (He also plays a major role in "I Was a Teenage
Communist.")

Key sketches: "The Days of the Week, Episode 4," "Comment
with David Brinkley: Boredom" (Moranis's last portrayal of Brinkley on the
show), "Love Slaves of the Southwest."

The promotional material for this set indicates that this episode should
have a commentary track by Joe and Paul Flaherty; however, the promotional disc
I reviewed did not have such a track (although there was an unused audio track
attached to that show).

• Episode 104: "Rome, Italian Style" Another
episode that lacks a true "runner"—however, a recurring series
of commercials parodies The Patty Duke Show with identical bellhops,
cheese hostesses, et cetera. The centerpiece of the show is the title sketch, a
long, highly-crafted parody of/tribute to Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 (that half-steals its title from
Pietro Germi's Divorce—Italian Style). The other high point of the
show is Martin Short's virtuoso performance as Jerry Lewis in "Jerry Lewis
Live on the Champs Elysees"—the first real hint of his brilliance to
air on the show.

Key sketches: "The Days of the Week, Episode 5," "Money Talks
with Brian Johns: Condominiums," "Nightline Melonville: Tip O'Neill
and Margaret Thatcher," "Norton Sheef's 'The Making of Dr. X'"
(Rick Moranis does an impersonation of Life photographer Norman
Seeff—whose photo shoot of the SCTV cast was included as an extra
on the SCTV Network/90 Vol. 1 DVD), "Mr. Know-it-all: The Life of
Nostradamus."

Disc Five

• Episode 105: "The Days of the Week / Street Beef" The last episode of the cycle is a hodgepodge of sketches with no real
connection, linked by a single runner involving Guy Caballero assigning Johnny
LaRue to do another edition of the man-on-the-street show "Street
Beef" (last seen in the Cycle Two Christmas episode, available on SCTV
Volume 2). LaRue eventually encounters a talkative bar patron named Donny
(guest star Bill Murray, Stripes), who somehow winds up becoming LaRue's
manager. Also features the climactic wedding cliffhanger episode of "The
Days of the Week."

Once again, Shout! Factory loads up an SCTV collection with a flock
of worthwhile extra features. There are two of the continuing series of
cast/crew interview featurettes, in this case "SCTV—The
Producers" and "SCTV Remembers, Part 3"; the latter
focuses mainly on Martin Short's memories of joining the show. These have a lot
of good, substantive information, and will (as before) be interesting to fans. A
John Candy photo gallery is provided, consisting of pictures from the collection
of Candy's widow Rose. A segment on Candy from the Canadian show That's
Life is also included.

The most desirable extra for fans of the show, though, is a full video of
the "SCTV at the Museum of Television and Radio" presentation. This
roundtable discussion took place as part of the 1997 William S. Paley Television
Festival at the MoTR, reuniting the entire Cycle Three cast (save Candy), plus
Robin Duke (who had performed on the show in its Canadian syndication days),
SCTV's long-time producer Andrew Alexander, Second City founder Bernie Sahlins,
and legendary Second City stage director Del Close. Although roughly the
equivalent of the 1999 Aspen Comedy Festival reunion included as part of the
SCTV Network/90: Volume 1 collection, the setting and tone of this
reunion is a bit more intimate than the former. It's absolutely fascinating for
hard-core SCTV fans—just watching the cast and associates all
interact in this setting speaks volumes about the friendly rivalries that must
have existed behind the scenes. You're left with the impression that this bunch
could get together tomorrow and, given a few hours, still produce the
best comedy show on television.

An audio CD of improv performances from the Second City stage rounds out the
extras. (The CD was unavailable for review.)

Here's another unexpected bonus—the video quality on this set is
exponentially better than that on the previous two. Whether it's because of
better source material or a better mastering job by Shout! Factory, the results
are impressive. Where prior SCTV sets had the general video quality of a
poor VHS tape, this set actually looks like a DVD. Don't get me wrong—this
is far from pristine, HD-quality contemporary digital television we're talking
about here. But it's much clearer, more vivid, and just plain easier on the eyes
than the earlier sets. Sound is once again provided in a two-channel version of
the original broadcast mono; it's fine for what it is.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Even on this, the best that sketch television has to offer, not everything
works. And when your sketches often run eight to ten minutes long, something
that doesn't work becomes that much more noticeable, and a potential torpedo for
a given show. Take, for example, "The Adventures of Shake & Bake."
"Shake & Bake" is a high-concept, exceedingly long, cartoonish
sketch whose central theme is an esoteric literature topic; specifically, the
long-standing belief that Sir Francis Bacon may be the author of some (or all)
of the plays attributed to William Shakespeare. Even Dave Thomas (who wrote the
sketch) admits in his book, SCTV Behind the Scenes, that the sketch
"should never have made it onto network TV." It was impressive in its
scope, and beautifully costumed, but, to quote my mother, "it isn't very
funny." It drags an otherwise outstanding show to a sudden and grinding
halt for several minutes. Unfortunately, this also was a harbinger of things to
come: These creative people were simply starting to burn out, with sketches like
"Shake & Bake" the consequence.

Another complaint: there are only two commentaries for the entire set.
They're good commentaries…but why aren't Andrea Martin and
Catherine O'Hara back this time? Where's Thomas? Hopefully Martin Short will do
a few commentaries for the next set of episodes, which contain some of his best
work ever. These shows are important enough that all of them should have
commentary tracks.

Closing Statement

The long-awaited release of SCTV on DVD is proceeding nicely; the task
is clearly in good hands. There isn't much to complain about here, other than
the occasional lead balloon of a sketch. Volume Four should be heading our way
in August—sign me up now.

(And for those of you who want to sample SCTV before owning, TV Land
is now airing the half-hour syndication package SCTV shows—which
encompass the entire run of the show—in the late-night Friday
timeslot!)

The Verdict

Everyone's found not guilty, but Shake & Bake owe me an essay on the use
of the Beast as metaphor in "The Tempest."